I recently had the opportunity to interview New York City real estate broker Ellen Silverman. In her childhood, Ellen didn’t envision anything in particular for herself career-wise. She grew up as an only child and her life goal was to be independent, make money, and get out of her parents’ home as quickly as possible! She loved structure and organization and always gravitated toward mathematics. She also developed an interest in the stock market by watching her aunt invest and manage her stock portfolio. Because she excelled at math throughout grammar school and high school, she went on to Carnegie Mellon University and then worked in finance.
As she says, the rest is history.
Born and raised in Manhattan, what Ellen loves most about New York City is that it is a city that does not stop for one minute. Everyone dreams of making it in New York City and there is always a way to reinvent oneself in New York and make money. If you work hard and hustle, you will make it. She says she would move to Miami if she did move somewhere else. She describes Miami as Manhattan with better weather.
Ellen explained that New York has always gone through good and bad periods. In her childhood, she remembers taking the subway to school and learning how to navigate the city. As a young adult, she developed a sixth sense of where to walk and how to avoid suspicious-looking characters.
Ellen had a twenty-five-year career as a Wall Street analyst. When she started on Wall Street in 1990 it was quite a different work environment than it is today. In the early nineties, there was a sense of freedom and expansion. Although there were few women in senior positions, she worked with and learned from the best and brightest of colleagues. Every day was challenging and the hours were exceptionally long. On the weekends she would recuperate but come, Monday it was work, work, work! When the banking crisis hit in 2008, SEC regulators and bank auditors worked onsite, scrutinizing everyone’s work and every move. She finally left the world of finance in 2016.
After her career as a Wall Street analyst, Ellen decided to get into real estate. Her experience living in New York City as a renter, buyer, and seller gave her a deep understanding of the ebbs and flows of the market and the diverse neighborhoods of Manhattan. Ellen has earned the coveted Certified Buyer Representative and Master Certified Negotiation Expert designations. In addition, she always had a keen eye for interior design and staging.
Ellen works with a lot of first-time home buyers for purchasing co-ops and condominiums as well as international investors who are seeking pieds-à-terre. She loves new developments and introducing her buyers to current design and architectural trends as well as new neighborhoods that her clients may not have considered. Ellen currently serves both local New York City clients and international investors from Spain, Portugal, France, Israel, Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
When asked why some people want to rent in New York versus buy, she explained that many renters are in the city for a brief time and want to see how they like living in the city before making a purchase. In addition, many renters do not have the down payment required for a purchase or they don’t qualify for a mortgage. In addition, there is a lot of political and financial uncertainty in the world right now and many buyers are reluctant to purchase. She does, however, believe the right time may never appear and it is better to be in the game than not. Like the stock market, New York real estate appreciates over the long run, but one has to be patient!
During the pandemic, there was a massive exodus of people leaving New York City. She would get calls from her friends constantly asking her why she was still in the city. Everyone was so fearful. Being a native New Yorker, Ellen knew that those who moved to Florida or the suburbs would come roaring back. And did they ever, as 2021 was one of the best years in real estate for many brokers. The market quieted in 2023 and 2024; however, she expects activity to increase significantly in 2025. She sees the New York market accelerating with more buyers coming out of the woodwork. Buyers have finally accepted the higher mortgage rates and have realized the need to get on with their lives. Because of the shortage of inventory, she does not see prices coming down significantly this spring.
Ellen describes herself as very bullish over the next five to ten years due an innovative program referred to as “City of Yes.” This approach seeks to distribute the responsibility of creating housing more evenly, essentially extending it to every neighborhood in the city. City of Yes will create more homes accessible to those at lower income levels over the next fifteen years than all of the city’s other inclusionary housing programs. The City of Yes is expected to produce 80,000 new units of housing.
If one really wants to buy an apartment in New York City and it seems out of reach, Ellen recommends investigating in up-and-coming areas of the city where prices are less expensive. These areas will appreciate over time. She also recommends investing in a condominium since the rules are less restrictive than in co-op apartments.
Ellen doesn’t expect to see the great price appreciations that sellers experienced in the past thirty years and feels it will be a good ten years until we see significant profit margins for sellers. However, she believes that it is never too late to own a home. If one wants an apartment in New York, she recommends considering a smaller space or more affordable areas of the city. There is always a compromise in a purchase – whether it is apartment size, neighborhood, amenities, or type of building.
As a negotiation expert, Ellen feels that sellers and buyers are never 100% happy. Each partner has to give a little to get a deal done. It is important to understand everyone’s motivations and at what point they will move the needle. She always aims to be collaborative with other brokers to get a deal done.
Ellen only wishes she had begun real estate earlier in life but says that she did not have the guts to leave her job and steady paycheck. She feels it is never too late to begin a new business and to do something you love. Resources exist today that she did not have access to growing up. She believes that we live in a world now where there is no job security so you may as well be an entrepreneur and do something you love. Ellen Silverman is certainly embracing her second career as an entrepreneur.
If you would like to learn more about Ellen Silverman, please visit https://ellenjsilverman.com/.
You can also follow her on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ellenjsilverman/.
This article was originally published on OpsLens.